TODAY'S FLOWERS, Nature Notes & I Heart Macro - Red flowing strawberries

Sorry I have been a sporadic blogger lately.

Summertime there is such a heavy load of dragging hoses 

to keep things alive that, with the heat and exertion,

I am usually too exhausted to get my brain back into gear.

Here is a recently acquired little darling that goes 

so well with my white flowering, old fashioned strawberries 

in the raised bed my grandson made for me.

They add such a nice touch of colour

and started bearing as soon as I put them in.

Here is the raised bed with a couple of very hot Thai chillies

in the centre, a couple of perpetual bearing spinach plants

that give me a good feed every couple of days,

red flowering strawberry on the left and a few

petunias for leavening.

Very soon the strawberries will take over,

they are already throwing out runners.

Gardening is really such fun!

Linking with

TODAY'S FLOWERS

Nature Notes 

and I Heart Macro

SkyWatch - Last night'd sky

This week the skies have been pretty ordinary,

uniformly grey or blue.

Last night we had this tiny touch of colour . . .

if you enlarge it you may see some interesting 

tints in the pink cloud

Linking with SkyWatch

SkyWatch - Tonight's evening sky

Feeding and locking up the chickens at night has it's

compensations.

I hope these clouds stick around for tomorrow,

temps. are set to skyrocket again

Westward sky across the paddock behind my house

our faraway paddock on the Eastern side

all lit up and pretty

the last rays of the sun catching one of the stock-water tanks.

Hope you all have easy weather to live with.

Linking with

SkyWatch

OUR WORLD, Nature Notes & Wild Bird Wednesday - On the Strut

The imminent fire threat has passed

and I can now turn my attention to pleasanter things.

Thank you to all of you who cared what became of me 

during that stressful time.

A pair of peacocks strutting their stuff on my water tank.

Her Ladyship with her brilliant green neck

and rather drab coronet

his Lordship, magnificent even without his showy tail

together they make quite a pair

at the moment herself is sitting on a huge set of eggs

threatening a population explosion.

The older male cohabiting with us,

has become quite tame and comes up when I feed the

chickens and eats out of my hand.

It is rather nice to be feeding the chickens in their cage

with a peacock on one side and my dog on the other,

both waiting for their share.

Life is GOOD!

Linking with

OUR WORLD

Wild Bird Wednesday

Nature Notes

OUR WORLD & SkyWatch - A fiery start to the New Year

The afternoon sun breaking through a smoke cloud

on the 3rd. January

the paddock behind my house

but the fire still was two townships away.

Next morning  there was just a small smoke cloud in the area and 

we thought the worst was averted

until late afternoon when there was smoke everywhere

and my daughter packed me into my car and 

sent me away to Angaston, 35 km away.

A lonely night in an old-fashioned hotel with no news

except for a text from my daughter that our local 

hospital had been evacuated and it was raining ash at home.
Since the power was out on the farm and due to the thick smoke
satellite reception for the mobile was intermittent,
it was hard to communicate with the children.

Had the situation not been so dire, I would have sought 

shelter at the hospital but that would not have been 

an option in this case.

a fiery sunset from the hotel car park

when I went to release my dog from the car and take

him for a walk.

Luckily the wind changed and I could go home yesterday 

morning.

For the moment the fire is being roughly contained but the 

hospital is still empty for the next few days

as the temperatures are soaring again tomorrow.

Lightning storms forecast for Wednesday with temps 

into the 40's C.

My car is packed, the few old photos, my husband's violin,

documents, my trinkets, receipts for the farm tax return, 

a few clothes, dog food and some art materials to ward off 

boredom during the time of uncertainty, and water.

I would prefer to stay and fight but he grandchildren 

don't want to have to worry about me as well as

fighting the fire and keeping the animals safe

if I hang around

and all I want, is for them to be safe.

What a start to the New Year

Hope yours was a little less dramatic!

Linking with 

OUR WORLD

&
SkyWatch